It's not illegal to be drunk in your home with a gun, Michigan appeals court rules

4:01 PM, January 30, 2013

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

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Novi police charged former House Speaker Craig DeRoche with possessing a firearm while intoxicated in 2010 after they were called to his home following a dispute with a neighbor.

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LANSING — People can’t be charged with a crime simply because they possessed a firearm while intoxicated inside their own home, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled in a case arising from an incident involving former House Speaker Craig DeRoche.

Novi police charged DeRoche with possessing a firearm while intoxicated in 2010 after they were called to his home following a dispute with a neighbor.

A district court dismissed the charge, based on DeRoche’s Second Amendment rights. The prosecutor appealed to the circuit court, which upheld the dismissal on the basis of an unlawful search.

In a unanimous ruling released today, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, based on the Second Amendment.

“While Second Amendment rights are not unlimited, this conduct is protected,” the panel said.

“Aside from the statute at issue, defendant was not engaging in an unlawful behavior, nor were there any facts to suggest that defendant possessed the handgun for any unlawful purposes.”

The panel said preventing people who are intoxicated from committing crimes with handguns is important, but the infringement on DeRoche’s Second Amendment rights in this case “was not substantially related to that objective.”

“The government cannot justify infringing on defendant’s Second Amendment right to possess a handgun in his home simply because defendant was intoxicated in the general vicinity of the firearm,” the panel said.

DeRoche, a Republican who was Speaker of the House in 2005 and 2006, battled alcoholism and also was convicted of a drunken driving charge in 2010. He said he has been sober since 2010 and now works for the prison reform group Justice Fellowship.

The panel consisted of Judges Kathleen Jansen, David Sawyer and Karen Fort Hood.